The Trolley Dodger

“These are the times,” as Vin Scully might quote, “that try men’s souls.” It’s the first line of Thomas Paine’s essay “The Crisis.” An appropriate title for Dodger fans at the moment.

Here’s most of the famous first paragraph:

THESE are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value.[...]

Now, I’m not going to go too far drawing parallels; after all, Paine was writing about important topics like tyranny, freedom, and American independence. Baseball, while of vast importance, has its limits. Yet even still, there is something to be said for standing by one’s team, to be not a sunshine patriot (or fair-weather fan), but rather keep on rooting for the team no matter the score.

Which is not to say the score doesn’t matter. And here we come to the soul-trying part of the evening.

Baseball is all about patience. “It’s a long season,” you know. “It’s still early.” Whatever the hand-wringing, wincing, and neck pain being generated by our starting pitching and what I hesitate to call our “hitters,” it is only May, and we are only 3.5 games back from the Diamondbacks. We had a nice winning streak going there for a while, and we will get to play the Rockies again at some point.

But it’s depressing to watch the Dodgers right now.

It feels like it did before that win streak. Like you don’t want to watch because you just know what’s going to happen. There really isn’t any point in watching sports (or any entertainment for that matter) if you know what’s going to happen beforehand. You might as well just read the box score.

Ooof, never mind.

If it weren’t for the dulcet tones of Mr. Scully, I don’t think I’d watch at all. The way things are going at the moment, I feel sorry that he has to watch every game.

Another old baseball saying is that you have to have a short memory. Put the bad games out of your mind and get on to the next one.

That’s one I’d like to challenge. If you remember how bad it feels to nearly get shutout by Brian Moehler, maybe you’ll work harder to keep that from happening again.

The last month or so last season, I had to take a break from baseball. It was too depressing. Sports are supposed to take you away from your troubles for a few hours, not add to them with a lot of bad news every day. (Unless your Cubs fans, but that’s another post. ;)

I do, however, believe the Dodgers can turn things around again. It’s a long season.

It’s still early.

Maybe 1958 wasn’t the best 50-year anniversary to be celebrating. Maybe we should have waited until 2009 and celebrated the golden anniversary of the first world series win in Los Angeles.

Yeah, that sounds familiar. Wait ’til next year.

Larry Harnisch at The Daily Mirror posted a clipping from the May 6, 1958, LA Times this morning, “Alston Isn’t Giving Up on Don Drysdale”. Fifty years ago to the day.

“Walt Alston isn’t giving up even a little bit on Don Drysdale, the 17-game winner of 1957 who became 0-5 last night as the Phillies drubbed the Dodgers 8-3 on the Coliseum greensward. [...]

“Working only two and a third innings, the 21-year-old right hander yielded five runs. He allowed three hits, walked three, wild-pitched twice, hit a batter and was guilty of a balk.”

First off, the word “greensward” needs more play nowadays. Secondly, that was quite a two and a third innings.

Drysdale finished 1958 with a record of 12-13 and an ERA of 4.17 — the worst of his career apart from the shortened 1969 season — and a WHIP of 1.351, also his worst. This was the first year in Los Angeles for the Dodgers, and they struggled, finishing 1958 in 7th place.

One year later, things were looking up.

Head on over to MLBTradeRumors.com to submit your questions for Fred Claire.

Former Dodgers GM Fred Claire has agreed to answer some questions from MLBTR readers. I’ll choose the best ones from the comments. Fred was the team’s GM for about a decade, and also served in other capacities in the front office before that.

Highlights from the 1955 series.

Ted Williams on What’s My Line

They refer to the fact that the Red Sox played at Yankee Stadium earlier that day, and that the Sox won 10-9. The video description says this was from 1954, which would place this episode on May 23rd.

Joe DiMaggio on What’s My Line

From 1955; they refer to his just having been elected to the Hall of Fame. Doesn’t take them long to figure out who it was.

Hey, if you missed out on the 50th Anniversary Dodger Blanket Giveaway last night at Dodger Stadium, fret not. With a little driving and luck, you can grab one at the Inland Empire 66ers game this Saturday:

The Dodgers and 66ers have teamed up to allow the fans of the Inland Empire to show that they really are true blue fans. The first 2,000 people through the gates on Saturday, April 19th at Arrowhead Credit Union Park in San Bernardino will receive a free Dodgers blanket!

Last season the 66ers also gave away a Los Angeles Dodgers blanket and fans came out in flocks! A line of fans snaked around the the stadium with the truest of blue fans lining up as early as 3:30 that afternoon.

They’re playing the High Desert Mavericks, who have replaced the 66ers as the Seattle Mariners’ High A affiliate.

Update: Looks like they should do Blanket Night more often!

The starting pitcher for Inland Empire, Tim Sexton dominated the Mavericks offense for six perfect innings. In a somewhat controversial decision to strictly follow the pitch count, 66ers manager Henry Cruz decided to take Sexton (2-2) out of the game before the seventh inning. Paul Koss pitched the next two innings, and while he did allow three Mavericks to reach base, he kept the no hitter in tact. The three runners that reached base got there on an error and two walks. The ninth inning, and the no-hit bit, was put in the hands of Francisco Felix who started off the inning strong with a strikeout. The chance for a no-hitter ended however when the Mavericks shortstop and highly touted prospect Carlos Triunfel knocked a sharp ground ball to the right side that was too hot for the first baseman Eduardo Perez to handle. Felix would end up striking out the side in the inning, which was little consolation for losing the bid at the no-hitter.

The Dodgers issued a press release today, “Lasorda to receive Pope Benedict XVI at the White House”, which is very cool, especially if he can get His Holiness to say a prayer for the Boys in Blue. Lord knows we could use some help.

What caught my eye the most was this passage at the bottom of the emailed version of the release:

The Los Angeles Dodgers, pioneers in sport and world culture, are celebrating their 50th anniversary in 2008. In that period, they have won more games, more pennants, and more World Series than any other club in the National League. Since the start of the modern era in baseball, the Dodgers of Brooklyn and Los Angeles, combined, have a cumulative attendance of more than 176 million, the highest total in the history of baseball or any other sport.

That just sounds awesome.

Today at noon (Pacific time) on the Fox Movie Channel, they’re showing It’s Good to Be Alive (1974), a dramatization of the story of Roy Campanella. Based on Campy’s book of the same name, it stars Paul Winfield as the catcher, Louis Gossett Jr. as his physical therapist, and Ruby Dee as his wife.

From the official Roy Campanella site:

A successful catcher is defined by his ability to handle the pitching staff, throw out would-be stealers, and keep errant throws and pitches in front of him. Roy Campanella possessed all these skills and then some.

The man they called “Campy” was the complete package, leading National League catchers in putouts six times, and clubbing 242 home runs in his 10-year Major League career. From 1948-1957, Roy Campanella was securely anchored behind home plate for the Brooklyn Dodgers.

He caught in five World Series, won the National League Most Valuable Player award in 1951, 1953, and 1955, and was the first black catcher in Major League Baseball history. In 1969, he joined baseball’s elite with his induction into the Hall of Fame.

Speaking of awards, the Dodgers in 2006 created the Roy Campanella Award in his honor, given to the Dodger who “best exemplifies the spirit and leadership of the late Hall of Fame catcher.” Rafael Furcal won the inaugural award. The winner last year? A certain All-Star catcher who can handle the pitching staff, throw out would-be stealers, and keeps errant throws and pitches in front of him. Pretty good hitter too.

You know what would be cool for the Dodgers to release this season? A 50th Anniversary DVD. Any number of historical featurettes could be included, but a couple of things I’d love to see since I missed them was the opening day “Field of Dreams” ceremony with all the old Dodgers, not to mention the Coliseum plaque presentation for Vinny.

There’s a New York Times op-ed this morning from a couple of guys at Cornell who decided to figure out just how impossible Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak was by running simulations of every at-bat of every year from 1871 to 2005. Oh, and they did it 10,000 times.

In essence, we programmed the computer to construct an enormous set of parallel baseball universes, all with the same players but subject to the vagaries of chance in each one.

They wanted to see how likely it was for any player to match that streak. The results? Surprising!

In each of these simulated histories, somebody holds the record for the longest hitting streak. We tabulated who that player was, when he did it, and how long his streak was.

And suddenly the unlikely becomes likely: we get a very long streak each time we run baseball history. [...] The streaks ranged from 39 games at the shortest, to a freakish baseball universe where the record was a remarkable (and remarkably rare) 109 games.

Check out the entire article at “A Journey to Baseball’s Alternate Universe”, by Samuel Arbesman and Steven Strogatz.

(via Slashdot)